The joy of winning the chalice last year has been replaced by the agony of defeat.

“You’re almost frozen. There’s so much going through your head, there’s nothing going through your head. … It’s almost like you don’t know what you’ve lost until it’s gone — or whatever that saying is — until you’ve experienced it,” said Kings general manager Dean Lombardi during a conference call Sunday, as per the L.A. Times.

“You can’t condone losing — you never want to do that — but I have to condone their sense of honor.

“They didn’t quit. They fought through and given the history of it, they deserve to be commended for what they did accomplish.”

Lombardi’s hard to fault as a GM. Good instinct for team-building, and I love that he’s an unabashed hockey fan. Some of these guys are way too stiff and reserved to be likeable. Lombardi wears his love of the game and his team on his sleeve. Like the Kings or hate ’em, you have to appreciate guys like him.

Love our team, our gm, our head coach. .Kings will from now on be considered a top team to win the cup as long as Dean is our gm and Daryl is our coach. ..kings 4life

ilikejay - Jun 10, 2013 at 2:15 AM

Yes, I agree. As a Hawks fan and a hockey fan, I appreciate the class and intelligence they both bring to the game. The kings will be a dynasty for some time.

Anoesis - Jun 10, 2013 at 2:49 AM

Now get to work and find a way to produce more goals. You can’t expect the goalie to stand on his head every single game while your offense averages 2 goals a game (okay, 2.7). Finals teams Pit and Bos scored 3.4 and 3.1, respectively.

Not enough production out of the wings except for Williams. Two centers (Carter and Richards) and a defenseman (Voynov) leading your team in scoring during the playoffs isn’t going to get it done. Kopitar led the team in points during the regular season and then disappeared in the playoffs.

There’s a major weakness on the left wing where Penner and Clifford had 14 points each, 10th and 12th on the team (reg. season). Three defensemen outscored those two.

Quick slipped from 1.95 GA and a .929 save % last year to 2.45/.902 this year (regular season), and from 1.41/.946 to 1.86/.934 (playoffs).

weak comments, first off Pitt is out much to the disbelief of the NHL, PHT and PitiTown. second, the difference between 2.7 and 3.1 is no crushing disparity, play better defense front to back.

Anoesis - Jun 10, 2013 at 11:04 AM

Pitt scored a lot, but didn’t have the D to make it matter. The Kings were the opposite, with good D but not enough production.

In losing multiple one-goal games in the course of these playoffs I’d have to say that the difference between averaging less than three goals per game (Kings) and averaging more that three goals per game (Blackhawks) was indeed a ‘crushing disparity.’ Crushing as in, not going to the finals vs. going to the finals.

I agree that SCORING goals is the bottom line for the Kings Anoesis… Kings show that you can’t just have physical play and size… gotta have the scores in the lineup .

When you say Quick ‘slipped’… maybe you were joking a bit… but he gave up LESS than Half-a-goal more per game in the playoffs…

Less than Half a Goal – while ONLY playing the best of the best teams… is pretty good stuff. Quick did his job.

Anoesis - Jun 10, 2013 at 11:01 AM

Yes, Quick was good, just not good enough. Last year he was unreal, this year he was just terrific. Unfortunately being just terrific wasn’t enough to overcome an anemic offense. I wasn’t criticizing Quick’s performance, I was just pointing out that once he became a little more mortal the Kings couldn’t produce enough offense to overcome that.

LoyalFan34yrsGoKings - Jun 10, 2013 at 3:13 AM

Work in progress

Anoesis - Jun 10, 2013 at 11:06 AM

I do have faith that Lombardi will find ways to improve personnel and that Sutter will continue to put that personnel to good use.

govtminion - Jun 10, 2013 at 11:22 AM

It was strange to see the Kings offense dry up like this. I honestly forgot Anze Kopitar played for them until his power-play goal in Game 5, I hadn’t seen him hardly at all in the playoffs to that point. Compare that to his performance a year ago, when he was a key component to their run. He’s hardly the only one- Carter, Richards, neither was particularly lighting the lamp. Very strange to see.